Panel Calls For Police Training To Curtail Racial Profiling

By Adrianna McGinley

A panel of academics and minority rights advocates argued Friday that having police receive behavioral science training to reduce racial profiling will help them gain the trust of at risk communities.

In a hearing with the House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, David Harris, Law Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Pittsburgh noted that racial profiling breaks down the trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve, which makes policing less effective.

“When people feel targeted, when certain communities feel that they are getting stopped, stopped, and stopped again, all the time, that relationship begins to break down,” Harris said. “People begin to feel that the crime effort is not being done for them but to them, and that has the effect of substituting for trust and for good relationships, fear, and when fear is there, when resentment is there, what happens is communication breaks down, information stops flowing, and you can’t have smart policing unless you’re getting information from the people who are there.”

Witnesses denied claims that minority communities do not welcome law enforcement, but added that police presence needs to be supported by data collection and police must go through behavioral science training in order to curtail racial profiling.

“We do want more police officers, we want them on our streets, we want them visible, but we also want them well trained,” said Hilary Shelton, Senior Vice President for Advocacy and Policy and Director of the NAACP Washington Bureau. “We believe the effectiveness of our police officers is also deeply rooted in the relationship they have with the communities they serve. As long as we allow racial profiling to continue, or the perception of racial profiling as we’re seeing now, without the accountability of measures in which we actually take into account what’s going on in our neighborhoods, we don’t have that trust.”

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) addressed racial profiling focused on immigrants’ legal status and warned against a wave of civilian profiling.

“Under Alabama HB56, law enforcement is encouraged to profile minorities,” Chu said. “Many Alabama residents are now taking profiling into their own hands and asking minorities for proof of citizenship when they renew their leases, try to open up a utility account, or even go shopping.”

Harris called the new trend “dangerous” because civilians are not trained to take on such policing.

“There’s no training what so ever…the person is not trained to recognize any documents, is not trained what to do if something is discovered, it seems to me like the worst of all possible worlds,” Harris said. “The problem with laws like Alabama and the Arizona law…is that there is nothing they can do to see immigration status. They must fall back on appearance and accent, and that just leads them into profiling. I would not want to be a police officer in those places.”

OPINION: OWS Is Bringing Down The Big Banks

According to the Credit Union National Association – or CUNA – more than 650,000 people have moved their money into local credit unions across the nation in just the last 4 weeks – coinciding with the rise of Occupy Wall Street – and Bank of America’s decision to set up a $5 debit card fee…a decision the bank has since backed down from.

More people fled the big banks and joined credit unions in the last month – than they did through the entire year of 2010. 

If Congress doesn’t want to do its job and end too big to fail banksters – then the people will just starve the banksters themselves.  Move your money!

Obama, Romney Run Neck And Neck In Swing States

President Barack Obama and GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney run neck and neck in key swing states, according to a new Gallup/USA Today poll.

Among registered voters in states that could decide the outcome of 2012, Romney came in with 47 percent support and Obama came in with 46 percent.

Against Herman Cain, the margin is slightly wider, with the President in the lead 48 to 45 percent. Texas Governor Rick Perry trails by the widest margin in swing states, 49 to 44 percent.

The poll also found that enthusiasm in swing states was higher among Republicans than Democrats. 48 percent of Democrats said they were extremely or very enthusiastic about their candidate as opposed to 59 percent of Republicans.

The poll, released Friday, was conducted among 1,334 adults between October 20th and 27th. The swing states included Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Results can be found here.

Obama: GOP Beholden To Millionaires

President Obama took a page right out of the Occupy Wall Street playbook on Friday, characterizing Republicans in Congress as being in the pockets of the nation’s wealthy.

During a press conference in France, the site of this week’s G20 economic summit, Obama accused GOP leaders who have unified their party against Democratic efforts to raise taxes of taking “rigid, ideological positions.”

Yesterday, Senate Republicans and a pair of Democrats blocked a phase of Obama’s American Jobs Act that contained $60 billion for transportation and infrastructure projects. The cost of the measure was offset by a small surtax on annual income over $1 million.

“If that’s their rationale than that doesn’t fly,” Obama said. The president later argued that Republicans are placing the nation’s 300,000 millionaires ahead of the millions of people who are currently out of work.

Obama Scolds Senate GOP Over Jobs Vote

President Obama issued the following statement Thursday evening in response to a vote in the Senate to block a portion his jobs package aimed at spurring transportation and infrastructure investment:

“For the third time in recent weeks, every single Republican in the United States Senate has chosen to obstruct a jobs bill that independent economists said would boost our economy and put Americans back to work.  At a time when more than a million construction workers are looking for a job, they voted “no” to putting them back to work doing the work America needs done – rebuilding  our roads, bridges, airports and transit systems.  That makes no sense.”

“It makes no sense when you consider that this bill was made up of the same kinds of common-sense proposals that many of these Senators have fought for in the past.  It was fully paid for.  And even though it was supported by more than 70 percent of the American people – Republicans, Democrats, and independents – 100 percent of Senate Republicans said no.  It’s more clear than ever that Republicans in Washington are out of touch with Americans from all ends of the political spectrum.”

“The American people deserve to know why their Republican representatives in Washington refuse to put some of the workers hit hardest by the economic downturn back on the job rebuilding America.   They deserve an explanation as to why Republicans refuse to step up to the plate and do what’s necessary to create jobs and grow the economy right now.  It’s time for Republicans in Congress to put country ahead of party and listen to the people they were elected to serve.  It’s time for them to do their job and focus on Americans’ jobs.  And until they do, I will continue to do everything in my power to move this country forward.”